Variable chamber balers for baling round bales include a single or multiple parallel continuous belts passing over and under a series of drives, idlers and rollers so as to be configured in a continuously closed manner. The belts function to cause incoming material into the baling chamber where the incoming material is compressed into spiral roll of increasing diameter. This compressed spiral roll of incoming material is discharged into the field when a pre-determined size is reached.
During continuous operation of the baler, the belt tends to develop slits and holes which may lead to serious damages. A damaged belt needs to be replaced or repaired in order to be able to continue high quality baling. Currently, substantial time is required for repairing or replacing a belt. This increases the down time of the baler. Hence, there was felt a requirement for repairing the belts in-situ in order to reduce the down time of the balers.
In the prior art, US20060016670 discloses a kit for patching worn areas in a conveyor belt. However, the patches provided in the kit can be applied to conveyer belts and is not feasible for high pressure belts, such as, the belts used in balers.
Furthermore, in the prior art, US20020134652 discloses a conveyor belt comprising three parts, namely an upper part, a lower part and an intermediate part are assembled by using simple placement of screws. However, this cannot be applied to baler belts, since the repaired part would interfere with the rollers of a bale chamber and possibly get damaged. Further, the pressure on the screws is substantially high and hence will fail to sustain the load exerted by the baler belt.
Hence, the present disclosure provides an alternative solution to existing repair kits for belts which is suitable for baler belts to repair them in-situ, in order to reduce the down time of the balers.